The Merle & Shirley Harris Family Foundation

Website funded by:

Walters' Family Foundation

Mission

Cranbrook Institute of Science is a natural history and science museum that fosters in its audiences a passion for understanding the world around them and a lifelong love of learning. Through its broadly based educational programs, its permanent and changing exhibits and its collections and research, the Institute develops a scientifically literate public able to cope with today's knowledge-based society. Moreover, Cranbrook Institute of Science generates the enthusiasm for learning about the natural world that will produce the scientists of tomorrow.

Rain Gardens & Rain Barrels

Rain gardens and rain barrels are solutions to excess stormwater and flooding in your yard. Rain gardens absorb and treat stormwater. Rain barrels collect roof runoff from your gutter system to prevent flooding. They also capture rainwater for irrigation.

National Park Service Rain Garden, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, August 2011

Rain gardens are designed to capture stormwater in a shallow depression planted with native plants. They are ideal drainage solutions for saturated areas of your yard that collect water and don't drain. By contouring the landscape to collect the water, you can keep water away from your foundation and out of storm drains. They usually require soil amendments, for example rain gardens in clay soils are backfilled with a mixture of compost and sand. Native plants absorb surface runoff and their extensive root systems create many tiny channels for water to soak into the ground. In addition, the plants transpire water back into the atmosphere and away from your property.

Rain Gardens are an example of Low Impact Development. Low Impact Development uses the basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall where it lands (SEMCOG LID Manual, 2009). It is land use/development that helps precipitation infiltrate the ground thereby preventing storm water run-off. Find out more about Low Impact Development projects in Southeast Michigan with this interactive map.

Take the Lawrence Tech University Low Impact Development Tour. Their campus features an interpretive tour of many common LID techniques to help protect the Rouge River from polluted stormwater runoff.

Rain Barrels & Rain Gardens

Reduce storm water runoff from your property by redirecting downspouts away from hard, paved surfaces into rain gardens and rain barrels. A rain garden is a sunken flower garden that collects rain water from your roof or driveway. The garden uses some water to grow and lets the rest seep slowly into the ground.

Rain gardens help protect our rivers and lakes by recharging groundwater slowly over time. A rain garden reduces the amount of storm water runoff flowing into storm drains.

Rain gardens use native Michigan plants.

A native plant is one that grew in Michigan prior to European settlement. Because they have evolved to Michigan's climate, soils, and animals - native plants usually don't require fertilizer or watering. Native plants have deep root systems that help storm water soak into the ground.

Along with absorbing storm water, rain gardens provide important habitats for birds and butterflies.

By planting native plants, you support the native insect population; helping to feed the 360 songbirds that pass through or breed in Michigan!

Like any other home landscaping feature, rain gardens require maintenance, such as periodic weeding. Once established, they are a beautiful solution to storm water pollution!

A rain barrel is a large container that collects and stores rainwater from roofs and gutters.

In the summer, approximately 40% of typical household water use is for lawns and gardens. Instead of paying for this water - on your utilities bill, or on the electric bill for a well pump - you can capture the water from your roof, store it, and draw on it for your gardening needs. Rain barrels also help reduce runoff during heavy rains. Is rainwater safe? Rainwater is oxygenated, non-chlorinated, low in minerals and warmer - better for plants and better for the environment.

Rain barrels are available in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit in with your home landscape. From white plastic recycled food containers, to elaborately painted bins, to oak barrels, many options are available. Rain barrels are often made from recycled materials.